Traveler ring holder assembly



E, H. ROONEY 2,725,712

TRAVELER RING HOLDER ASSEMBLY Filed May 18, 1954 Dec. 6, 1955 INVENTOR. [aw/v fl. POO/Vi) United StatesP ht r TRAVELER RING HOLDER ASSEMBLY Elwin H. Rooney, Berkeley, Calif., assignor of one-third to James P. Helm, San Francisco, and one-third to James A. Chokae, Richmond, Calif.

Application May 18, 1954, Serial No. 430,589

3 Claims. (Cl. 57-124) This invention relates to traveler-ring holder assemblies for use in spinning-frames, and in an improvement upon the construction disclosed in prior Patent No. 1,502,269, granted July 22, 1924, to the present inventor for a Traveler Guide for Spinning, Twisting, etc.

Among the objects of the present invention are to provide a traveler-ring holder assembly which permits the use of higher spinning speeds and the spinning of finer threads at high speeds than does standard construction; to provide a device of the class described which reduces friction to a degree even beyond that achieved by the construction disclosed in the prior patent above identified; to provide a traveler-ring and holder assembly which is readily replaceable and which can be rapidly disassembled and reassembled for cleaning and maintenance; to provide a device of the class described which substantially prevents the entrance of lint into the working parts and the clogging of such parts thereby; to provide a ball-bearing type of traveler-ring and ring holder construction which does not require the use of excess lubrication, either for lubrication per se or for the purpose of washing away accumulated lint; to provide a traveler-ring holder assembly of ball bearing construction wherein the inertia of the moving parts does not limit the acceleration or deceleration which may be imparted to the associated spindle without danger of breaking the thread being spun; and to provide a device which can be substituted for the traveler-rings in existing spinning frames without alteration of the frames themselves.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the ensuing detailed description of a preferred form of the invention, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein:

Fig. 1 is a drawing, partly in elevation and partly in section, illustrating the traveler-ring of the present invention in conjunction with a conventional spinning-frame spindle;

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary radial sectional view, on a larger scale than that of Fig. 1, illustrating the construction of the device more clearly;

Fig. 3 is a transverse sectional view through the traveler ring holder assembly of this invention, the plane of section being illustrated by the line 33 of Fig. l; and

Fig. 4 is a partially exploded view in perspective of .the traveler-ring, traveler, and traveler-ring 'holder of the present invention.

Considering first Fig. 1 there is shown a conventional spinning-frame spindle l, carrying a spool 3 on which the thread is wound as it is twisted and spun. The spindle is driven through a pulley 5 by a drive band or belt, not shown, and associated with the spinning frame is a mechanism whereby the spindle and spool are reciprocated vertically so as to wind the thread uniformly on the spool as it is spun. Preferably, and at the present time substantially universally, such spindles are mounted in ball bearing and are rotated at speeds up to about 10,000 R. P. M. Since the spindle, its mounting, and drive are all conventional and are shown here only to Patented Dec. 6, 1955 2 illustrate the cooperation therewith of the device of the present invention, it is considered unnecessary to go into the construction and drive mechanism in detail.

As is well understood, each spinning-frame comprises a large multiplicity of spindles; seldom less than sixty and frequently many more. A cotton-spinning mill will include many such frames, comprising, often, many thousand spindles.

Surrounding each spindle and concentric therewith is a circular aperture formed in the ring rail 7, which is a part of the conventional spinning-frame. conventionally, there is mounted Within this aperture a traveler-ring having a T-shaped flange at the top. The traveler, usually a C-shaped loop of rather fine spring wire, is sprung over this flange and is held in position thereon by its own resiliency. The roving from which the thread is twisted is fed to the spindle from immediately above it, passes through the traveler ring and thence to the spindle, on which it is wound as it is spun. The traveler slides around the ring in the direction in which the spindle is rotating, so that the turns of thread which are wound on the spool 3 are much fewer in number than the turns accomplished by the spindle, the remainder of the rotation going into the twisting of the thread.

The speed with which the spinning can be accomplished is limited very largely by the traveler speed, and in accordance with modern practice, with conventional travelers and rings, the limiting speed is in the neighborhood 'of 4600 feet, or approximately M; of a mile per minute. It will be understood that such limitations are not absolute, but if the speed of the traveler becames too high, heating, sticking, and excessive Wear on the projecting ends of the C-shaped traveler occur, leading to the necessity for an excessive number of shut-downs to replace the travelers. A considerable amount of wear occurs in any event; conventional practice is to replace the travelers about once a week. Since the travelers are actually very small, constituting incomplete loops of spring Wire less than a quarter-inch in diameter in the usual sizes, it will be recognized that the weekly replacement of perhaps 50,000 such rings in a mill constitutes a serious maintenance expense. On the other hand, if the travelers are permitted to wear out and even one such traveler on a frame breaks or otherwise releases its grip on the traveler ring, a serious shut-down occurs While the traveler is replaced, with a consequent loss of time and production.

According to the present invention, in place of the simple traveler-ring there is provided a ring holder 9 of annular form. lreferably this ring holder is provided with an outwardly projecting flange 11 at its upper end which seats against the ring rail 7 and positions the ring holder with respect thereto. Other means of positioning the holder may of course be used, and while desirable, the flange 11 is not an essential feature of the invention. Also projecting from the upper end of the ring holder 9 is an inwardly projecting flange 13 which is an essential feature of the present invention, as will be described more fully hereinafter.

The construction and form of the ring holder and the various other parts, although shown in Fig. 1, can be seen more clearly in the fragmentary cross-section of Fig. 2. A ball race 15', of arcuate cross-section, is formed in the inner periphery of the holder 9, below the flange i3. Engaging and running within the ball race is a row of bearing balls 17, which are held in position by a ball-cage 19. The ball-cage is cylindrical in general form, and has formed Within it a plurality of substantially equally spaced radial apertures 21 for retaining the balls, as is best indicated in the cross-sectional view of Fig. 3. The race is positioned vertically so that when the balls 17 within the apertures are engaged with the ball-race 15, the upper end of the ball cage approaches closely the flange 13 but does not contactit. Furthermore, the outer, diameter of the ball cage is such as to fit freely within the holder 1". The lower end of the ball cage is provided with a narrow inwardly projecting flange 23.

'Within theassernbly as thus far described is fitted'the traveler ring it is cylindrical or tubular in general form, and is dimensioned to fit freely within the fiangella, but without actualcontact therewith. A T-shaped flange 27 is formed on the upper edge of the traveler ring. The flange 27 is clasped loosely by the ends of a conventional C-shaped traveler 2), through which the thread Cilpasscs (as is shown fragmentariiy in Fig. 2) to pass. horizontally to the spool 3 and .be woundthereon as shown morelfully in..Fig. l. The flange .27 is preferably highly polished;so that the traveler can slide around it with minimumfriction as in the conventional constructionwherein ihe'ring. itself is fixed in place. Below the flange 27, a second ball-race 33 of arcuate cross-section is formed and so positioned that it is coplanar with the ball race .15 when the lower end of the travelerlring 25 barely clears the flange 23 but is out of actual contact therewith.

The difference between the minimum.diameter of the ball race 33 and themaximum diameter of the ball race is substantially equal to the diameter of the balls 17. The ball race 33 is, as has been stated, arcuate in cross section but is shallow; it may or may not be shallower than ball race 15, this being a matter of choice in design. if the diameter of the races are such that the balls roll freely within them it follows that the external diameter of the ring 25, considered at portions other than where the ball races are formed, is slightly too large to slide freely into place past the balls and allow the latterto seat within the race. in order to accomplish such seating the traveler ring must be elastically distorted. With a steel travelerring, proportioned to the other parts approximately as shown in the figure, however, moderate downward pres sure will so distort the traveler ring so that it will snap into place without permanent deformation. In assembling the parts the ball-cage balls and holder are first assembled as shown in perspective in Fig. 4, and the traveler ring inserted from above and then snapped into place. Furthermore, if the assembly be removed from the frame and pressure be applied to the lower edge of the traveler ring, it may be snapped out of place and the whole arrangement disassembled, if this be necessary for maintenance. Furthermore the entire ring holder can be removed at any time and quickly replaced if damage does occur, or after long continued use has caused wear, without shutting down an entire frame.

in accordance with the ball bearing guide or traveler ring as disclosed in the prior patent above referred to, clogging of the bearings by lint or by foreign particles was avoided by w hing out the hearings with lubricant such as a light oil. in the present improvement means are pro vided for normal lubrication by one or more oil holes normally closed by a ball and spring in conventional man her as shown in Fig. 2 and indicated by the reference character 3d. in the present device, however, no provision is made for avoiding clogging of the device by washing out lint collected thereby. instead, the necessity for washing is avoided by the disposition of the parts and the small clearances which, it has been found, because of their posi- .tioning, do not tend to attract airborne lint and become clogged.

There is, of course, always airborne lint floating in the neighborhood of spinning frames. No matter how smooth the traveler rings or the other portions of the equipment through which the rovings or the spun thread pass a certain amount of lint will be scraped off. Due to the friction of the thread against the various parts the thread is always electrified and the lint is also electrified with charges of the same sign. Hence it is repelled from the thread into the surrounding air. .The skin friction between the air and-the airbornelint is relatively high incomparisonwiththe weight of the lint particles, and therefore the lint would settle very slowly even if it were uncharged; because each particle carries a charge of, the same sign, the settling is still slower. When the lint approaches the conducting portions of the spinning frame, even if the latter is grounded, it is attracted thereto by induced charges of opposite sign.

Because of the construction .of the present device each gap between the mutually movable parts is located at an internal.orreentrant angle. Theresult is that the shape of the electric fields is such that the gaps are effectively shielded electrically and the lint will settle or be attracted to the metallic parts of the device anywhere rather than at such an angle, and preferably at the projecting corners. The clearances between the-relatively movable parts are preferably made as small as is practical, being of the order of magnitude of 0.001 of an inch. This is largely by way of precaution, however, to prevent lint, dust, and other foreign particles being forced into the clearance gaps when the machines. are cleaned. it will be noted, however, that the'tlangeiS substantially covers thegap between the internal diameter of the holder 9 and the outer major diameter of the traveler-ringZS, so that there is no gap at any flat surface or projecting comer. Similarly, the flange 23 extends interiorly past the outer diameter of the ring 25, but does not come out level with the interior diameter of the latter ring. Because the electric field concentrates on the. projecting edgesand becomes practically zero at the reentrant corners, the efiect is very much as though thenairbornelint wereirepelledfrom the gaps between the movingqparts,.although the actual situation is merelythatthe projecting corners'exert superior attraction rather than that the reentrant corners exert a repulsion.

in thepresent 'inventors prior patent the traveler-ring, although n'lountedon' ball bearings, rotated as a whole, the traveler. itself being fixedthereto. in starting or stopping a spindle. .thc entire ring could therefore exert considerable stress on .thethread passing through the guide due .to theinertia of the ring,.as well as the friction of the ring on its ball'bearing, slight though the latter might be. The inertiaof. the traveler itself in the present device isso slight as tozbe negligible. During periods of starting and. stoppingthe traveler slides around the ring while the speed is lowin the same. manner as with conventional devices. -As thespindlespeeds up, the friction of the traveler does increasingwork against the ring tending to .turn it, and because-it is freely rotatable within its ball bearings the traveler ring rapidly comes up to a speed approaching that Whichthe traveler itself has attained. Some slippage between :the travelerand the ringconstantly occurs, and some wear onthe traveler does take place, but this wear occurs almost entirelyat'the periods of starting and stopping. .During the, major running time the speed of the traveler'vv'ithtrespect to'the ring is relatively slow. Under thephysicalprincipleof Tleast action the relative speeds of the traveler, the ring, the ball-cage and the holder, adjustthemselves so that the work done, and consequently the. heat generated-is ata minimum. Furthermore, the heat is not concentrated in the light fragile points of the travelenandlhe wear on thelatter is reduced both because its relative travel is less and because it runs cooler. Accordingly, insteadof the traveler requiring replacement at.intervals.of,isay,;once a week, this time consuming and 'expensiveslmaintenanceioperation may be performed only once a month or even less frequently. The cost of the assembly, is ofzzcourse, greater than the simple travelerring of the non-ball-bearing type, but the reduction in maintenance and freedom from trouble quickly pays the difference in cost over that of the simple ring.

This lower maintenance cost per unit time is in spite of thefactthatwith the type of ring here disclosed the output .per spindle,-for a given size of thread, may be greatly increased. Whereas when the simple type of ring is used the maximum spindle speed that canbe employed with any size *threadis'in the neighborhood or" -1'0,0tll)'-R; P; *M., using the travehring assembly of :the

present invention the maximum spindle speed can be increased to approximately l5,000 R. P. M., with the speed the traveler itself, relative to the fixed frame, also increased by a factor of 50% to approximately 7,000 feet per minute. Furthermore, owing to the lower friction and consequent lower stress on the thread which is being spun, finer thread can be spun at higher speeds than with conventional constructions.

It will be evident to those skilled in the art that the form of the device as shown in the figures is subject to a certain amount of modification when the invention is embodied in rings of difierent sizes or for different sized threads.

Furthermore it will be recognized that while the described arrangement of the flanges which cover and protect the ball-races and balls lends itself to quick and easy assembly, other arrangements of such flanges are possible which would still permit assembly, the flanges being formed on different ones of the rotating members so as to cover the balls and clear the coacting parts, leaving the gaps within the coacting members in re-entrant corners protected by projecting corners at which the electric fields would concentrate. The invention is deemed to include all such modifications as fall within the scope of the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A traveler-ring holder assembly for spinning-frames comprising an annular holder adapted to be fixed to a spinning-frame surrounding a spindle, said holder having an inwardly projecting flange at the top thereof and a ball-race formed in the inner surface thereof below said flange, an annular ball-cage fitting within said holder and provided with a plurality of radial apertures spaced substantially uniformly around its periphery in alinement with said ball-race, an inwardly projecting annular flange integral with said ball-cage, bearing-balls positioned in each of said radial apertures, and a cylindrical travelerring including a T-shaped flange on the upper end thereof adapted to retain a C-shaped traveler and having a ball-race formed in its outer periphery so positioned that said T-shaped flange extends above the holder flange when said bearing balls are seated in the ball-races in both traveler-ring and holder, the parts being so dimensioned that when assembled the only contact made between any of said holder, ball-cage and traveler ring with any other portions of the assembly is with the said ball-bearings, and that the clearances between said holder and ball-cage and between the flanges on said holder and ball-cage and said traveler ring are of the order of magnitude of one thousandth inch.

2. A traveler-ring holder assembly comprising an annular holder adapted to be fixed to a spinning-frame surrounding a spindle and having a ball-race of arcuate cross-section formed in its inner periphery, a ball cage having radial ball retaining apertures substantially equally spaced around its periphery fitting freely within said holder, bearing balls positioned within each of said apertures, 21 traveler ring having a ball-race formed in its outer periphery fitting freely within said ball-cage and dimensioned to project above the upper end of said holder when said ball-races are in co-planar alinement, said bearing balls being so dimensioned with respect to the diameters of said ball-races and the internal and external diameters of said holder and traveler-ring respectively and to permit the insertion of said travel-ring when said ball-bearings are in place only by elastic deformation of the parts of the assembly as above recited, a T- shaped flange adapted to receive a C-shaped traveler formed on the upper edge of said traveler ring, an inwardly projecting flange formed on the upper end of said holder and extending over said ball-cage and substantially closing the gap between said holder and said traveler-ring without actual contact with said travelerring, and an inwardly projecting flange formed on the lower end of said ball-cage and projecting beneath the lower end of said traveler-ring substantially to close the gap between said ball-cage and said traveler-ring without making actual contact with said traveler-ring.

3. A traveler-ring holder assembly comprising an annular holder adapted to be fixed to a spinning-frame surrounding a spindle, a generally tubular traveler-ring positioned coaxially Within said holder and having a T shaped flange on the end thereof for retaining a C-shaped traveler, said holder and traveler-ring having ball-races of arcuate cross-section formed in their apposed surfaces, a plurality of bearing-balls positioned between said ball-races in rolling contact therewith, a ball-cage for retaining said bearing balls in substantially equally spaced relation around said ball-races; a flange formed on one end of said holder and projecting inwardly toward said traveler-ring so as to close the space between said holder and said traveler-ring except for a minute gap in a re-entrant angle between a fiat upper surface of the flange and the tubular surface of the travelerring, an inwardly projecting flange formed on the end of said ball-cage opposite to the flanged end of said holder and projecting beneath the end of said traveler-ring substantially to close the space between said holder and traveler-ring except for minute gaps formed in re-entrant angles between flat and cylindrical surfaces of the various parts.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 597,176 Culver Jan. 11, 1898 860,448 Cumnock July 16, 1907 2,034,762 Kuwada Mar. 24, 1936 

